Monday 9/13 (Hailey, ID to Polson, MT

The day dawned cool and clear. Temperatures at our departure were in the upper 40's which is on the cool side for riding any distance, but jus the way I like it. Our goal for the day was to ride about 390 miles. That is not hard out west with the open roads, but it does take some stamina in the cold weather. Not long after we passed through Sun Valley, ID and began to climb toward the Galena Summit the temperatures began to fall quickly. We reached a low of 34 degrees and everyone was turning on their electric clothing and heated grips. The summit is about 8,700 feet and there was snow on the ground above and below us. The roads were dry and we stopped at the top and had our picture taken by this historic marker by a German fellow that was touring for three months in the US. He was about to embark on 6 days alone in the mountains backpacking. He said "it was good for him, and gave him time to think". I guess so... I wonder how many people have ever spent 6 days alone and never had any contact with another human. I bet it is a fraction of a percent of us. I have met a lot of Germans while traveling the west and they are full of adventure and fun to speak with. He wanted his picture taken first with the Harley, as they have so few of them in Germany and then with the rest of the bikes. He said that he has a BMW R1000GS back home and loves to ride the Alps. We chatted for a few minutes and wished him well. After decending from the pass the road snakes along the Salmon river for many many miles. This is some of the best riding of the trip so far and rivals the Route 12 trip up to Lolo Pass I took earlier in the summer. Here is a picture taken while cruising along the river. This view was the norm for about 50 miles and I could have taken a picture anywhere that was just as beautiful. As we were decending along the salmon, I saw a plume of smoke coming up from the stream right by where a fisherman was fishing. At first I thought he was probably cooking his catch, but as I passed I got a good smell and it definitely was not trout, but sulphur. It turns out there are hot springs all along the bank of the river and at various places hot water at about 180 degrees just pours out of the mountain and empties into the river. A few miles down the road we found a hot spring site that was built in the 1930"s by the CC corp. If you have never heard of the CC Corp.,it was a government program enacted during the depression to give men meaningful work to do. Many of the state parks, national parks and historic sites were projects and the buildings and trails these men made are still enjoyed by many Americans and foreign travelers to this day. Now there is a revolutionary idea! It probably could be used today with the state of our economy, instead of lining the pockets of many of the crooks that have received "bail out" money. The building was a simple, but sturdy hut made out of stone for changing clothes. There were NO doors or stalls, just a roof and walls about 5 feet high. This is not a problem for the Phat Pac as there is very little modesty among the group. Mac changed beside his motorcycle along side the road and left his pile of clothes there. I can only imagine what passing motorists thought. Maybe that is why so many people stopped while we were soaking.. they were probably looking to see who left their clothes beside the road. We quickly exited our clothing and donned our bathing suits and headed for the stream. It was kind of tricky at first to find a spot where you did not scald yourself, or get too much river water, which I estimate was probably in the low 40's. After all we were only a few thousand feet below the snow on the mountain. Some local people were there when we arrived and they had built a bunch of little pools out of rocks that let in just the right amount of cold water to mix with the hot. AHHHH.. we had our own little hot tub surrounded by steep mountain walls and glorious pine trees. We sat, relaxed and laughed for about 40 minutes in the stream. For me this is one of those little bonus things that happens on a trip like this, that was not planned and ended up being the most memorable moment of the day. Joe manned the camera to avoid being in any of the pictures... so the hunt is on to get a good picture of him at some point in the trip, when he is least expecting it. After getting back on the bikes, all refreshed, we headed up RTE 75 to the intersection of Idaho Rte 93 and headed north to Flathead Lake, passing through Missoula, MT. We are staying in a motel right on the lake tonight and from local reports, we have been told to dress for the cold tomorrow. Tomorrow we head up to Glacier National Park and will transit Logan Pass, which if I recall from last year is up over 11,000 feet in elevation. I am hoping for some snow... Not a lot, but just enough to allow me to uphold my reputation for finding it on our trips out west. We will see!